The invention relates to heat exchangers. More particularly, the invention relates to exchangers using pre-combustion propellant to cool structures heated by the combustion.
A wide variety of heat exchanger technologies exist and are used in a wide variety of applications. Exemplary applications involving high differences in temperature are scramjet and rocket engines. In many such heat exchangers, heat is drawn from combusting propellant and received by incoming pre-combustion propellant or a component thereof. The heat exchangers may be positioned along combustion chambers and/or nozzles to cool such chambers or nozzles to maintain required engine life. An exemplary such use of a heat exchanger is discussed in Faulkner, R. and Weber, J., “Hydrocarbon Scramjet Propulsion System Development, Demonstration and Application”, AIAA Paper 99-4922, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1999.
Additionally, ceramic matrix composites have been developed for use in the aerospace industry. Various composites are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,627,019 of Jarmon et al. for use in cooled engine components. U.S. Pat. No. 6,907,920 of Warburton et al. discloses use of a layer of a composite in a heat exchanger panel assembly. The composite panel serves as a so-called “hot face” or hot panel. The cooling channels may be formed between the hot panel and by one or more additional panels and may be bounded by tubular inserts.